Tonight I played a couple of songs on my UBass (and Rob Allen MB-2). This time I got to play with the amazingly talented Christoffer Wadensten and Anna Fogel! The group Meadows ever Bleeding has been featured before on this blog and that was actually the last time I played with the band…some 1,5 years ago…so it was great to play this music again. This time we only rehearsed for maybe 2 hours total so I really had to keep my ears and mind open to make it work!
We played on the release party for a new CD that features local bands from Orebro. The CD is really diverse with a lot of different musical styles!
As you might remember the very first video clip of me playing my brand new UBass (and the first video in my Jammin’ with my Kala UBass series) featured Christoffer. We will probably play some more as a duo in the near future! I’m totally looking forward to that!
Read more about Meadows…, Christoffer, and Anna in the links below!
Hi again!
I just got home from two great gigs. This weekend I’ve been playing concerts featuring music by Ted and Kenneth Gärdestad. Ted has been one of the most celebrared Swedish pop artists and has even been said to be the best Swedish artist of the 20th century!
These concerts features his music and we are lucky to have Kenneth Gärdestad (Teds brother and the lyricist of all the songs) telling their story between songs. The guitarist on most of the original recordings, Janne Schaffer (know for his work with ABBA), is also featured on these concerts. And the great Erik Linder sang lead vocals on some of the songs!
I decided to use my Kala UBass on a couple of the tunes. As usual it worked like a charm! I will do a style/song lesson of one or two of the songs from the concerts soon!
Joining me in the band is good friends Fredrik Kjellgren, piano/organ; Gunnar Hjorth, guitars; Oscar Eriksson, drums and me on Kala UBass, a fretless Rob Allen and my trusty old Ares 5-string bass.
This concept was the idea of more good friends; Magdalena Eriksson (featured singing lead on a couple of songs) and conductor of the choir Krister Kallin. (We studied at the Orebro University together!)
Stay tuned for the lessons!
Please check out the links below for more info on Ted, Kenneth, Janne and Erik!
One of the songs we play, "Surfboard", composed by Tom Jobim
Hi!
I have a big interest in Brazilian music. Its rhythms and beautiful melodies makes me feel good and I really like both listening to and playing the different styles from Brazil. In the previous post you can read about a CD that will be released in March featuring great Brazilian music. This CD will be a good place to hear great music played on cello and guitar. I had the privilegeengineering, editing and mixing this!. Check it out!
I have been playing (and singing, in english and occational ‘fake’ portuguese) Brazilian music for quite some time. If you have followed this blog you probably remember that I have blogged about this before. See these previous posts: Black Orpheus and Dindi.
When the opportunity to attend a special course in Brazilian Popular Music at the University of Orebro (where I also teach sound engineering) I immediately enrolled! I want to know more about the music and its history. My goal is to get an over all better understanding, and hopefully a better feel, for how to play the music in a traditional way. Then I’ll try to make it, little by little, ‘my own’. Playing Brazilian inspired music is truly something I can’t be without!
The University of Örebro has a partnership with the UniRio University in Rio de Janeiro. Thanks to that we are able to meet different guest professors from Rio during this course! They talk about the history, and show/teach us songs from different eras and styles! It’s really great! Towards the end of the course there will be a drummer and bass player teaching styles originated in the Nort East of Brazil. I’m really looking forward to that!
Tomorrow it’s time for a new lecture/ensemble playing experience in the Popular Brazilian Music course! I can hardly wait!
The course will end in mid March with a concert at the Orebro Jazz Club. We will play song in the different ensembles and with the guest proffesors and musicians. Great fun!
This time I’d like to tell you about a great CD that will be released in March. There is no UBass on it but if you like good music played by good musicians you’re in for a treat!
When I’m not playing UBass (or any other bass or drums or…) I work part time at the Örebro University teaching sound engineering. I got the opportunity to record this wonderful music with the roots in some of the styles of Brazilian music, like choro, samba and bossa nova.
The musicians are both from Brazil and have played professionally for many years around the world. Please check out their web sites to find out more.
Tavares-Faria Duo will release this CD soon and I will let you know where you can buy it as soon as its released!
Now the UBass link! When the recording sessions where all done I managed to record one song with them. I love Brazilian music and it was an honor to be able to sing the Jobim classic ‘Dindi’ with them. Nelson even wrote a cello part on the spot so Gustavo could join in on his cello!
When I got home I added a UBass part before I mixed the song and did the video below!
Here’s the ‘making of…’ video I did for the release of the Tavares-Faria Duo CD called ”Na Esquina De Mestre Mignone’.
Here’s some info on a remix I did recently. I used my UBass and Rob Allen basses and the ‘stems’ from Christopher Willis album ‘Tiger Flower Circle Sun’. Chris has been an inspiration for me in the ‘live-looping-genre’! So it was great to work with some of his sounds in this remix competition.
I downloaded all of the 12o something stems/loops/samples, choose the ones I liked best and imported them in Ableton Live.
Then I did a live remix choosing the loops (adding different effects) on the fly and recording UBass and my Rob Allen fretless on top with my SoftStep MIDI-Foot-Controller made by KeithMcMillen. After some tweaking I came up with this remix!
Well ‘shoot out’ might not be the best description since I’m only testing three different models but it’s kinda catchy don’t you think 🙂
I have written about preamps before in earlier posts but haven’t really done any serious comparisons sound and feature vise.
These are the ‘contenders’:
– Fishman Model B Bass Preamp (discontinued)
– K & K Dual Channel Pro Preamp
– Headway EDB-1
The three different models ARE different and don’t share exactly the same features so it’s not gonna be a ‘fair’ fight 🙂 But the main focus in this test is SOUND so the extra features on the Headway Preamp can be seen as bonus.
OK here we go!
Fishman Model – B
Since I got my Kala UBass back in July 2010 I’ve been using my old Fishman almost every time I have been gigging or recording. It’s quite small and have the basic controls (volume, bass and treble) on the top of the preamp making it super accessible when you use it attached to your strap or back pocket. Since there are no controls on the original Kala UBass it’s nice to be able to make mid-song adjustments ‘on-the-fly’!
The Fishman preamp requires a 9 volt battery to work and there is no option to run it on ‘wall power’. It has not been any problem for me since the battery last for a long time. I think I have changed it once or twice since July 2010.
Fishman options
Since the Model B is discontinued (you might be able to find one on ebay of cause…) here are links to other Fishman preamps. B-II for Acoustic Bass This has almost exactly the same features as Model-B with the added AC Adaptor Jack! Pro-EQ II Acostic Preamp/EQ More EQ options. Pro-EQ Platinum Bass Preamp/EQ/D.I. With a built in DI (Direct Inject/Direct box) like the Headway EB-1.
K & K Dual Channel Pro Preamp
I bought this preamp in conjunction with a dual pickup for upright bass. This pre has dual inputs and since the dual upright pickup has a stereo out one of the inputs can be used as a stereo input. Pickup 1 to channel 1 and so on. Read more here.
It has two controls on top of the box.
Volume and volume for the two different channels. You can’t change the tone on the outside of the box as you can with the Fishman. But there are small pots inside the box for fine tuning. But the easy access of the Fishman is not possible. Since you probably only use one channel for your UBass it would be better to have the same control possibilities as on the Fishman but it could work if you open the box and fine tune, find a good setting and stay with that.
There is also one advantage you won’t accidentally turn the wrong knob when wanting to make a mid-song adjustment of the volume reaching for that volume knob on the strap!
Yes similar to the Fishman pre it also has a belt clip making it possible to attach it to the UBass strap (if you use one).
Headway EB-1
This is my latest edition to outboard pres. It has a lot of features some of them not found on the Fishman and K&K.
There are dual channels with the possibility to use it with for example one piezo and one microphone. (this setup is most useful when you use it with a guitar och violin (or maybe an upright bass). There are an onboard EQ, notch filter (to remove a specific frequency that makes the sound ‘boomy’ of make the sound feedback (probably most problematic with guitar and violin). The channels have different input impedance options so you can use it with a vast variety of piezo versions. (I also play a Rob Allen Guitars 4-string MB-2 fretless bass equipped with a Fishman piezo and pre and I can plug it in on one channel match the impedance and use the other channel for my Ubass making it easy to switch if I’m using both of them on a gig).
Sound comparison
After that brief look at some of the features and differences of the three preamp let’s go on to the ‘real’ test – how do the make the UBass sound?
As I’ve written before you really have to get as tight and firm bottom end as possible since its where the core sound of the UBass is at. So let’s see if there is any differences in how well thee pres can accomplish this!
Test 1
This test was done before I thought about testing the K&K too so there is only the Fishman and Headway preamps in the test.
If you follow my blog you know that I recently uploaded a song/style lesson playing the Bob Marley song ‘Three Little Birds’. The sound you hear on that video is the Headway EB-1 only. BUT I took two signals from my UBass and ran the other signal through my Fishman Model B. (I used a mono > mono + mono tele adaptor to split the signal – see pic below). There is of cause some differences between using the line out of the Fishman and the D.I. out of the Headway but I wanted to use the best possible connection available on the preamps. See more pics below.
UBass with dual out adaptor
UBass connected to the Fishman and Headway pre amps
Fishman Model BTC Electronic Konnect 24D
Listen to the different pre amps in the video clip below. I switch between the two pre amps as follows:
Bass only (Headway > Fishman > Headway > Fishman) >
Bass + Drums (Headway > Fishman > Headway > Fishman)
Watch the clip here.
Ok. What do you think? I’ve been trying to record the different preamps as flat as possible. I have only put a low cut filter (set to 35 Hz) on both recordings. Personally I think it’s hard to hear any big differences. Maybe there is a little bit more ao an audible clicking sound with the Fishman!? But when you listen together with the drums it’s really hard to hear any difference.
In part 2 I will use all three preamps and record even record without any of the three preamps going direct to the mic pre of the soundcard.
Time for a new song lesson! Lets try some reggae bass. It seems like a perfect genre for the nice ‘subby’ low end you can get out of a UBass. To get the best possible sound you really need good amplification. Check out my previous post with some amplification tips.
I choose one of the many great songs by Mr. Reggae himself, Bob Marley, called ‘Three Little Birds’.
First I will play through the form; intro, A and B part; once. This is roughly the original bass part. Please check the original version in this clip. There are of cause numerous options you can take making this bass line more ‘you’ but it’s always good to start with the original part! As with any style (especially a new one – that you haven’t played before) one of the best ways to get to know it better is to…hope you guessed it…LISTEN to a lot of that style!
I’ll try to do some ‘ad lib’ variations on my second pass to give you some examples of my take on reggae bass playing bass!
In the second half of the video you can play to a ”minus one”-version!
Reggae Links
Here’s a good book on the different shades of Jamaican bass playing. You’ll get some insight to Rock Steady, Dancehall and Ska to name a few styles covered in the book.
This time my UBass has to wait until mid song to appear (and be heard)!
This is our version of a great arrangement of the Disney classic ”When you wish upon a star” (from the movie Pinocchio) that Swedish jazz guitarist Ulf Wakenius and Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren did on the CD ”Christmas with my friends”.
Daniel Björnmo, guitar
Jan-Kenneth Rönning, piano
Magnus Sjöquist, vocals and fretless Kala UBass
UBass signal chain and tech stuff
UBass (> Electro-Harmonix Wah/Volume pedal > Headway EDB-1 > MarkBass Little Mark II > Aguilar SL-112)
The song is recorded with a stereo pair of small diaphragm microphones with omni capsules in A/B stereo configuration with the vocal mic added to the mix.
Stay tuned for a future blog post with an in depth test using the Headway EDB-1 with the UBass (and other piezo equipped basses). I will also compare similarites and differeces to my trusty old Fishman Model B preamp!
This is from a jazz gig I had last year with Björnmo-Sjöquist Duo Daniel and I have been playing in different bands/groups and projects throughout the years and you’ve seen Daniel in a couple of ‘Jammin’ videos already. I think he is really great both as a player but also as a music teacher! We both work at the same ‘music college’ in Sweden.
Hopefully we’ll be able to record some music this year and maybe release some of it too so stay tuned! I’ll let you know when and where you can listen/hear/buy it!
You can watch another video from the same gig on my other blog here!
Play UBass! 